This is how media propaganda is done. Outlets that are supposed to be coming to their own conclusions present the same story, as one united front.

“Everybody ready? Got your lines straight? We all agree? Both sides of the aisle? Okay, go!”

In this case, the occasion was the Sunday network news-talk shows, and the target was Edward Snowden.

The shows followed on the heels of Obama’s Friday speech, in which the President defended the NSA and its “necessary actions.”

To bolster that message, the Sundays shows hit Snowden hard.

The specter of Russia was rolled out. Both Democratic and Republican legislators had their ducks in a row. They did innuendo, suggestion, “expert” inference.

Republican Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, appeared on Face the Nation (CBS) and Meet the Press (NBC).

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Rogers: “Let me just say this, I believe there’s a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an FSB agent in Moscow. I don’t think that’s a coincidence…I think there are some interesting questions we have to answer that certainly would lend one to believe that the Russians had at least in some part something to do [with Snowden’s theft of NSA files].”

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, appearing on Meet the Press, remarked that Snowden “may well have had help” from Russia.

Republican Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, showed up on ABC’s This Week: “I personally believe that he [Snowden] was cultivated by a foreign power to do what he did. I don’t think …Mr. Snowden woke up one day and had the wherewithal to do this all by himself…I believe he was cultivated.”

The Snowden-Russia media push just happened to occur on all three major network Sunday shows, and it just happened to be suggested by two Republicans and one Democrat.

And it just happened to occur two days after Obama basically defended the work of the NSA and the Surveillance State.

You can also factor in two suicide bombings in Volgograd, a video that threatens terror attacks at the upcoming Olympics in Sochi, and a hunt on in Russia for a woman (terrorist) with a scar on her face.

Perfect timing to roll out a Snowden-Russia connection.

The motive is clear: protect the US Surveillance State, assure the public its work is necessary to national security, and deflect criticism of the NSA.

At the same time, the State must keep trying to convince the American people that the portrait of Snowden as a lone patriot is false.

Propaganda is a battle between competing images and messages.

“No, that image is false. This image is true.”

If tomorrow, for reasons of protecting special interests and official agendas, Snowden needed to be painted as a mentally ill Tea-Party gun freak, or a homophobic green dragon with vampire fangs, there would be a gaggle of politicians and think-tank pundits ready to step forward and make the accusations, with great assurance.